Road to Ironman

It's not that far to LA from Jackson Hole but there is no direct flight. That's a bummer. I spent roughly 14 hours traveling because of delays and cancelations. I was so tired and sore, but I realy didn't care. That's 14 hours of traveling, with 2.5 hours in the air. The rest of that is spent sitting around the airport reading, eating, drinking, listening to music, charging my laptop, and hoping that my luggage would arrive with me in LA. I'm glad to be home, but I miss the mountain already. I had plenty of time to think and have come to the conclusion that LA may not be the place for me. I'll expain more later.

I had an amazing time. It was great to see all my friends. My boarding ability made a quantum leap in both form and confidence. There's nothing steeper than Jackson Hole in North America. It's great and my new favorite mountain. I could go on and on and bore you with photos and trail maps. Ask.

Back to life. Back to reality. Time to do some laundry, clean up and get ready for work. It was a great week.

Labels: Jackson Hole, vacation

Holy cripes! I've had a couple of amazing days here at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. All this rock is incredibly intimidating. It's steep and massive. The past few days (Mon & Tue) have been warm(er) and sunny. I've gotten a crazy goggle tan. The prime time for snow conditions were been between 10 AM and 2 PM. After that the lower slopes were thawing a bit and I was worried the next day would be too icy. Wed was finally overcast and the good conditions lasted all afternoon. And today our prayers were answered with snow.

It snowed all day making for some great powder riding in spots. My riding has taken a quantum leap forward and my confidence on steep terrain is high. Today Steve took me on a few "tree" runs as we made fresh tracks in the powder. There were points when the cloud cover in certain valleys was so dense if you didn't know your way around it would not have been fun. You could not see more than 10 meters in front of you, and when you're moving with some speed that's just crazy. Then you'd get on a lift and be in the clear, looking down on the fog. It was a crazy weather day. The top of the mountain was cold and windy. Toward the end of the day mostly sleet and not snow fell. The lower slopes were again getting mushy as the afternoon sun made it's appearance after the lifts closed (4 PM).

Labels: Jackson Hole, snowboarding, vacation

I took a lesson today here at Jackson Hole. I learned a ton. I'm so wiped out. Love this place.

Labels: Jackson Hole, snowboarding, vacation

Words will not really do this justice. I'm finally seeing the Teetons for myself and I must say, damn. I'm going to be taking a ton of pics this week. I'm so psyched to be boarding here. It's just AMAZING. I'm so happy to be spending time with all my boys from Chi. It's going to be a great week and this place is just unreal. Wish you were here.



I've never de-planed onto a tarmac before. It's weird. Smallest airport I've ever been to. Also the only airport in the US within a national forest. This is probably one of the smallest towns I've ever been in... City folk.

Labels: Jackson Hole, vacation

Utah.

Yeah. Don't know much about it. Kind of scared of it from just spending a few hours in Salt Lake City airport. Mainly because of the inbred looking white folks and this fine selection of books in the SLC airport book store. (click for detail)

That is a section of LDS reading for your traveling pleasure. Holy cripes of Ladder Day Saints.

But Utah... damn your natural beauty. Even from an airport you've piqued my interest. I'll be back.

Labels: utah, vacation

Here's a nice photo stitch from last week at Heavenly. Click for detail.

Labels: Heavenly, snowboarding, vacation

Here's a nice pic of a deep bruise I earned on my last vacation. (Like my hairy legs? You can tell it's not Triathlon season, although I've never been a big fan of manscaping.) I had a few nice days to snowboard at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe as a warm up for my trip next week to Jackson, WY.

I'm really glad that I got a nice warm up for Jackson Hole. It had been a while since I had a few days of boarding back to back. For as little natural snow as Tahoe has had to this point the resort did a good job of making snow and grooming what was there.

Snowboarding in California is always an awesome experience with bright sun shine making even cold days and poor snow conditions much more tolerable. Add to that breath taking views of Lake Tahoe itself... it is so choice. I feel truly blessed and privileged to be able to enjoy such amazing outdoor adventures. For roughly 12 years starting around the age of 11 I went camping on average five or six times a year due to my involvement with Boy Scouts & Sea Explorers. Sometimes I forget how much I love the experiences of being outdoors. Being self reliant, the sense of stewardship over land/water, adapting to conditions, planning ahead, enjoying the moment, observing nature, leaving no trace, feeling the weather, the cold, the sun, the rain, and coming home. Long bike rides, triathlon, sailing, camping... will definitely be seeing more of you soon.

Labels: snowboarding, vacation